The present application is based on Japanese Patent Application No. 2000-331773, which is incorporated herein by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ink jet type recording apparatus including a recording head mounted on a reciprocating carriage and adapted to discharge droplets of ink on the basis of print data and a wiping member for wiping off ink attached to a nozzle forming surface of the recording head in sliding contact with the nozzle forming surface. Particularly, the present invention concerns a technique for controlling the amount of waste ink wiped off the nozzle forming surface by the wiping member.
2. Description of Related Art
An ink jet type recording apparatus of, for instance, a serial printing system is provided with an ink jet type recording head mounted on a carriage and adapted to move in the main scanning direction and a paper feeding means for transporting recording paper in the sub scanning direction perpendicular to the main scanning direction, and as droplets of ink are discharged from the recording head on the basis of print data, printing is executed on the recording paper. In the light of the fact that ink pressurized in a pressure generating chamber is discharged onto the recording paper through a nozzle opening in the form of droplets of ink to effect printing, the above-described ink jet type recording head has a problem in that clogging is likely to occur in the nozzle opening due to an increase in the viscosity of the ink or solidification of ink attributable to the evaporation of an ink solvent from the nozzle opening, attachment of dust, and the like, thereby possibly causing faulty printing.
For this reason, this type of ink jet type recording apparatus is provided with a capping means for sealing a nozzle forming surface of the recording head when printing is not performed. This capping means not only functions as a cover for preventing the drying of the ink at the nozzle opening in the recording head, but also has the function of recovering the capability of discharging ink droplets whereby when clogging has occurred in the nozzle opening, the nozzle forming surface is sealed, and negative pressure from a suction pump is applied so as to suck and discharge the ink from the nozzle opening, thereby overcoming the clogging of the nozzle opening.
The forcible processing of sucking and discharging the ink, which is effected to overcome the clogging of the recording head, is called cleaning operation, and is performed such as when printing is resumed after a long period of suspension of the recording apparatus and when the user has operated, for example, a cleaning switch upon recognizing faulty printing. Then, after the ink is sucked and discharged into the capping means from the recording head by applying negative pressure based on the suction pump, as described above, the operation of wiping and cleaning the nozzle forming surface is effected in an accompanying manner by a wiping member formed of such as a rubber material.
The aforementioned wiping member has the function of preventing waste ink from dripping down from the recording head which moves to a printing area by scraping off the ink attached to the nozzle forming surface as a consequence of the cleaning operation, and also has the function of forming a proper meniscus of the ink at the nozzle opening by coming into sliding contact with the nozzle forming surface of the recording head. For this reason, the wiping member is arranged to advance or retract in the horizontal direction with respect to a moving area of the recording head, as required.
Consequently, the waste ink wiped off the nozzle forming surface flows down the wiping member and drops from the wiping member. The waste ink dropping from the wiping member has the problems of not only contaminating a portion located immediately below the moving area where the wiping member advances and retracts, but also hampering the proper operating function of the wiping member as the waste ink flows over an extensive area and flows around to, for instance, a drive unit for horizontally advancing or retracting the wiping member. Furthermore, there is another problem in that part of the waste ink wiped off the nozzle forming surface by the wiping member also flows around to the suction pump for evacuating the internal space of the capping means, thereby hampering the proper operating function of the suction pump.
To overcome the above-described problems, a measure has been made to dispose a sheet-like drain-ink absorbing material, such as felt, on a frame inside the apparatus immediately below the wiping member, to thereby absorb and hold the drain ink. In addition, in a particular apparatus model, an arrangement has been proposed in which a drainage receiving member for receiving the waste ink scraped off by the wiping member is disposed, and a drainage absorbing material for absorbing and holding the waste ink is accommodated in this drainage receiving member.
However, in the former arrangement in which felt, for instance, is disposed on the frame inside the machine body immediately below the wiping member as described above, there is a limit to the waste-ink absorbing capacity, and there are cases where excess drain ink flows over the frame, and problems similar to those described above occur. In addition, even in the latter arrangement in which the drainage absorbing material is disposed in the drainage receiving member, if, for instance, manual cleaning operation is frequently utilized, a limit occurs to the waste-ink absorbing capacity, so that cases can occur in which the interior of the apparatus is similarly contaminated.
The present invention has been devised in view of the above-described problems, and its object is to provide an ink jet type recording apparatus which is so constructed as to be capable of controlling the amount of waste ink wiped off the recording head by the wiping member, making it possible to prevent the occurrence of the above-described contamination.
The ink jet type recording apparatus in accordance with the invention devised to attain the above object is an ink jet type recording apparatus including an ink jet type recording head mounted on a reciprocating carriage and adapted to discharge droplets of ink on the basis of print data, and a wiping member for wiping off ink attached to a nozzle forming surface of the recording head in sliding contact with the nozzle forming surface in conjunction with the movement of the carriage, characterized by: drainage-amount integrating means for integrating and counting an amount of drain ink wiped off the nozzle forming surface by the wiping member.
In this case, the drainage-amount integrating means is preferably used jointly with an arrangement in which a draining absorbing material for absorbing and holding the waste ink wiped off the nozzle forming surface by the wiping member is disposed. More preferably, the drainage-amount integrating means is used jointly with an arrangement in which the wiping member is arranged to be advanced or retracted with respect to a moving path of the recording head and to wipe off the ink attached to the nozzle forming surface by coming into sliding contact with the nozzle forming surface of the recording head in a state in which the wiping member has advanced to the moving path of the recording head, a drainage receiving member for receiving the drain ink wiped off by the wiping member is disposed immediately below the moving path of the wiping member corresponding to a gravitational direction of the wiping member, and the drainage absorbing material for absorbing and holding the drain ink is disposed in the drainage receiving member.
Further, the drainage-amount integrating means for integrating and counting the amount of drain ink wiped off the nozzle forming surface by the wiping member is preferably arranged to effect integration and counting each time the wiping operation is executed. In this case, the drainage-amount integrating means may be arranged to integrate and count a predetermined value each time the wiping operation is executed.
In addition, it is possible to suitably adopt an arrangement in which the drainage-amount integrating means for integrating and counting the amount of drain ink wiped off the nozzle forming surface by the wiping member effects integration and counting each time the operation of cleaning the recording head is executed. In this case, the drainage-amount integrating means may be arranged to integrate and count a predetermined value each time the operation of cleaning the recording head is executed.
In addition, in a preferred form, the ink jet type recording apparatus may further comprise: drainage-amount integrating means for integrating and counting the amount of drain ink occurring on the basis of the operation of cleaning the recording head or the operation of flushing the recording head.
On the other hand, there are cases where the drainage-amount integrating means for integrating and counting the amount of drain ink wiped off the nozzle forming surface by the wiping member is arranged to effect integration and counting when operating power supply for the recording apparatus is interrupted.
In addition, in a preferred form, the ink jet type recording apparatus may further comprise: integrated-value determining means for determining whether or not a discrete value of the drainage-amount integrating means for integrating and counting the amount of drain ink wiped off the nozzle forming surface by the wiping member has reached a predetermined value, wherein if it is determined by the integrated-value determining means that the predetermined value has been reached, a message is displayed by display means. Additionally, it is preferred that if it is determined by the integrated-value determining means that the predetermined value has been reached, the operation of cleaning the recording head or the wiping operation be arranged to be prohibited.
According to the ink jet type recording apparatus constructed as described above, the amount of drain ink wiped off the recording head by the wiping member in consequence of, for example, the operation of cleaning the recording head is integrated and counted by the drainage-amount integrating means, so that it is possible to ascertain the same. Then, drainage-amount integrating means is capable of performing the integration and counting each time the wiping operation is executed, or each time the operation of cleaning the recording head is executed, or when the operating power supply for the recording apparatus is interrupted. In this case, if a constant set in advance for the drainage-amount integrating means in correspondence with, for instance, a mode of the cleaning operation is integrated, sufficient integration and counting can be executed for practical purposes.
Then, if it is determined by the integrated-value determining means that the count of the drainage-amount integrating means has reached a predetermined value, a message is arranged to be displayed by the display means, thereby making it possible to notify the user that maintenance is required. At the time same, if an arrangement is provided to prohibit the operation of cleaning the recording head or the wiping operation, it is possible to prevent the occurrence of contamination of the interior of the apparatus by excess drain ink.